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Anna Karenina, the novel as a case study in the contest between "modernity" and "tradition," their ethical order, ideology, cultural codes, and philosophies. Images of society, women and men in Tolstoy v. those of his contemporaries: Marx, Mill, Nietzsche, Weber, Durkheim, Freud. Open to juniors, seniors and graduate students. Requirements: three interpretive essays (500-1000 words each). Analysis of a passage from the novel; AK refracted through a "philosophical" prism and vice versa (30% each); class discussion and Forum (10%).

COMPLIT 199:Senior Seminar

What is criticism? When we interpret literature today, are we fulfilling the critical vocation? What are the alternatives? We consider the origins of the idea of the critic in nineteenth-century culture, its development in the twentieth century, and its current exponents, revisionists, and dissenters. Senior seminar for Comparative Literature Senior majors only.

COMPLIT 211A:Emile Zola (FRENCH 211)

A comprehensive introduction to and historical analysis of Emile Zola's literary work as foundational for the late-nineteenth century literary movement that we call "Naturalism." The analysis of Zola's novels will be embedded in the historical situation of France in the transition from the Second Empire to the Third Republic, with special emphasis on the epistemological situation of that time. Knowledge of French desirable but participation through English translations will be possible.

Last offered: Winter 2015
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II

COMPLIT 217:The Poetry of Friedrich Holderlin (GERMAN 217)

A working through of the complex prosodic forms, existential and political concerns, and poetological reflections of both the most past-oriented and most pathbreaking German poet of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. A comprehensive introduction that will attempt to develop an innovative view in which Holderlin will appear as one of the founding figures of literary Modernity. Knowledge of German desirable but participation through English translations will be possible.

Last offered: Autumn 2015
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II

COMPLIT 220:Renaissance Africa (AFRICAST 220E, ILAC 220E, ILAC 320E)

Literature and Portuguese expansion into Africa during the sixteenth century. Emphasis on forms of exchange between Portuguese and Africans in Morocco, Angola/Congo, South Africa, the Swahili Coast, and Ethiopia. Readings in Portuguese and English.

This course introduces students to the ways literature has been used to think through the ethics of human subjects research and experimental medicine. We will focus primarily on readings that imaginatively revisit experiments conducted on vulnerable populations: namely groups placed at risk by their classification according to perceived human and cultural differences. We will begin with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), and continue our study via later works of fiction, drama and literary journalism, including Toni Morrison's Beloved, David Feldshuh's Miss Evers Boys, Hannah Arendt's Eichmann and Vivien Spitz's Doctors from Hell, Rebecca Skloot's Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. Each literary reading will be paired with medical, philosophical and policy writings of the period; and our ultimate goal will be to understand modes of ethics deliberation that are possible via creative uses of the imagination, and literature's place in a history of ethical thinking about humane research and care.

In this course we will examine Francis Petrarch's book of Italian lyric poems, Rerum vulgarium fragmenta, and its reception in early modern France, England, and Spain. Readings from Petrarch's epistolary and ethical writings will contextualize historically and intellectually the aesthetics and ethics of the fragment in his poetry. With this foundation, we will investigate the long-lasting impact of Petrarch¿s work on Renaissance poetry and humanism, with attention to both the literary and the material aspects of its reception. Taught in English.

Last offered: Autumn 2014
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II

COMPLIT 226A:Queer Literature and Film (FEMGEN 226A)

Close analysis of major works of LGBTQ literature, film, and visual art from the 1890s to today. Students will gain deeper knowledge and appreciation of historical and contemporary forms of queer representation in various national literatures, film, and visual art; understand relevant social and political debates; and gain a basic knowledge of feminist and queer theory. Course will include an optional online component to reach out to the public (class website queerlitfilm.wordpress.com, social media).